La Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50 - Erratic weather

5:45 PM Mon 26 Sep 2011 GMT

'La Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50' ? Pierrick Garenne / GPO

La Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50 - It's nice and warm in Europe and the sky, on the Bay of Biscay, is half sunny, half cloudy. The wind is erratic like the wake of some competitors that are taking latitude.

44 miles separates the most northeast competitor Jorge Madden (636 - Samsara) and the most south Etienne David (679 - TeamWork). Just look at the paths to quickly understand that they are all trying to move themselves from the east/southeast flow punctuated with west/northwest swell of 1 to 1.5 meters.

Staying on the course, good option?
If three quarters of the fleet chose to be at 240?, a group of troublemakers chose to head north/west. On the side of protos, Aymeric Chapellier (788 - La Tortue de l'Aquarium - La Rochelle) was the first to pull the helm. Aymeric left the fleet earlier in the day and is now sailing 261?, taking more West than his buddies. He is now 30th but his bet is a long term one. Same hymn-sheet for Donatien Carme (606 - 606 cherche sponsor) that is a little less North. Keep an eye on them.

Same trend for production boats, with Jorge Madden, Kan Chuh (472 - Vmax), Bruno Simonnet (744 - El Nono), David Prono (728 - Esi Group), Susanne Beyer (745 - Penelope) and Tolga Pamir (737 - Yakamoz). It is interesting and fascinating to watch them and see what is going to happen with this option.

But, we need leaders. Who are they? Renaud Chavarria (596 - B?ziers M?diterran?e) leads the production boats before Hugo Lavayssi?re (527 - Ares and Co) and Pierre Brasseur (552 - Voile Oc?an). Jorg Riechers (753 - Mare.de) leads the protos before Nicolas Boidevezi (719 -D?fi GDE) - Ed, another Bertand design - and David Raison (747 - TeamWork Evolution). They all sail as a group at the speed of three to four knots and remain on the same path.

Weather
General synopsis for today and the next 48 hours:
Today: light pressure gradient at the edge of a vast high pressure over a large southern half of the Europe continent extending towards Madeira and the Canary islands. Pressure of 1025 hPa in the north of France and 1023 hPa in the Bay of Biscay. Low 998 hPa in the Atlantic Ocean by 35?N and 35?W move towards north-east and will be located by 38?N and 33?W on Tuesday 00h00. Storm system are moving from the Azores to Great Britain and Scandinavia.

Tomorrow: Bay of Biscay will be at the edge of high pressure on Europe continent gaining strength 1030 hPa in Germany. Light wind conditions in the edge of high pressure extending from Cape Finisterre to Madeira. Low 997 hPa located at north of Azores islands at 12h00 moving to north-east and located by 44?N and 22?W on Wednesday at 0h00. South-south-westerly storm system at west of the10?W.

La Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat website

by Veronique Largeau

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